Artist Ivan Hoo’s Incredible Self-Taught Photo-Realism

The painting style of photo-realism generally requires top-flight study in the arts in order to master it, but Singaporean artist Ivan Hoo did so all on his own. You wouldn’t be able to tell from looking at his work, though, which is currently blowing away followers of Hoo’s Instagram account and beyond.

Ivan Hoo’s technique, mastered over the course of his only five years in the art world, involves painting on wooden surfaces and achieving a visual effect this is practically indistinguishable from a photograph (so why not just take a photograph? I don’t know). Each piece reportedly takes about three days to finish, and Hoo’s choice of subjects ranges from animals to food and much more.

You can check out some of Ivan Hoo’s most impressive works of photo-realism in the gallery below. And to see more of the artist’s work, just head over to his Facebook page here.